The church stands at a pivotal point on history, along with the American people. We need to enlighten those who do not know the lessons of history, but we the church must be the light in order to illuminate the way. If our light is darkness, how dark is that? We do well to listen to the warnings to the churches from the book of Revelation. We do not want to be like those who left their first love—Jesus Christ or we will only be playing church. We have far too many important things to do in this life and distractions to entertain us to merely play nice. On the other hand, we cannot be an empty sounding gong either. For without love, we are nothing (1Corinthians 13:1).
So how do we balance love and proclaim truth? One cannot only speak of love, but live it and model it to those around us. It is easy to see who loves their fellow man, and this is important, but what of loving God and truth? One needs to learn the important lessons both history and the Bible teaches us. The Israelites wandered in the desert for forty years because of their lack of faith. In some ways, I believe the church at large is in the same wilderness. Without the Bible as the plumb line a society quickly deteriorates, as we can see in America today.
People are blinded by Obama’s promises to turn the country around economically, while he has gotten us into more debt than any another President. Yes, he inherited debt, but he made quick work of multiplying it. But we cannot blame Obama for all the ills of America. It is partially the church’s fault for standing by and letting Christ be taken out of our schools, our homes, our government, our society and now our churches. Of course, this is not the case for all churches, but the church at large. We cannot give merely lip service to Jesus Christ and mention Him in the pulpit without living like Him through our week from Monday to Sunday. So we too must take part of this blame, though as Christians we have our wonderful Savior to redeem us from our faults and short comings.
While America forgets the lessons of history: the fall of the Roman Empire primarily from within, the rise in power of Hitler and other dictators during economic and political crisis, the rise in school violence since prayer was taken out of the schools, and a thousand other lessons we tend to forget while watching the movie stars and playing games on our phones. Have we become a society that is unable to think because of all the noise in our life and the constant stimulation?
The New York schools today are calling for more in-depth teaching—teach less but in more depth: learn to evaluate, analyze and think critically. That is a noble pursuit, if we can tear our young people away from their video games and face book pages. So what does this have to do with the church? Everything. The church must penetrate every level of culture, but not at simply a surface level, or it becomes irrelevant. We must teach children and adults to think critically, not to take at face value everything they read or are promised. Exposure to the Word of God does not make one ignorant, but it shows one how to truly think on many levels and how to apply wisdom. Without wisdom this country will continue to spiral downward.
So what solution do I propose to counteract the growing ignorance and problems in America?
• Read the Bible daily and mediate on one Bible verse or passage
• Apply that verse to your life in a practical way
• Share what you have learned with both a Christian and non-Christian
• Teach your children biblical principles and don’t leave it up to the church
• Pray for the country and everything else
• Read current events and see how they resemble past history
• Vote with wisdom
• Contact representatives, senators, legislators on important issues
• Donate money to organizations who promote solid biblical principles
• Help others in any capacity that you can
• Enjoy the gifts God has given you and be thankful
• Love God and others
What do you think?
No comments:
Post a Comment